Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

  If you’ve been hesitant to   list your house   because you’re worried no one’s buying, here’s your sign it may be time to talk with an agent. After months of high rates keeping buyers on the sidelines, things are starting to shift. Rates are already coming down due to a number of economic factors. And yesterday the  Federal Reserve  cut the Federal Funds Rate for the first time since they began raising that rate in  March 2022 . And while they don’t control mortgage rates, this sets the stage for mortgage rates to fall even further than they already have – especially since more cuts from the Fed are expected into next year. And lower  mortgage rates  are bringing more buyers back into the market. Lisa Sturtevant, Chief Economist at  Bright MLS , says: “A drop in the cost of borrowing will help fuel more homebuyer demand . . . Falling rates will also bring more sellers into the market.” The best part? You can  take advantage  of that renewed buyer interest. As Rates Fall, Buyer Activi

  Are big investors really buying up all the  homes  today? If you’re trying to find a  house to buy , this may be something you’re wondering about. Maybe you’ve read about it or seen reels on social media saying investors buying all the homes is making it even harder to find what the average buyer is looking for. But spoiler alert – there’s a lot of misinformation out there. To clear things up, here's the scoop on what's really happening. A lot of the big investor activity is actually in the rearview mirror already. The  Wall Street Journal  (WSJ)  explains : “Investors of all sizes spent billions of dollars buying homes during the pandemic. At the 2022 peak, they bought more than one in every four single-family homes sold, though  more recently their activity has slowed as interest rates rose and supply became tighter .” The key here is investor activity has slowed significantly, and even during the peak of investor buying, 3 out of every 4 single-family homes purchased were

  Homeowner Net Worth Has Skyrocketed If you’re weighing your options to decide whether it makes more sense to  rent or buy  a home today, here’s one key data point that could help you feel more confident in making your decision. Every three years, the  Federal Reserve Board  releases the  Survey of Consumer Finances  (SCF). That report covers the difference in net worth for both homeowners and renters. Spoiler alert: the gap between the two is significant. The average homeowner’s net worth is almost 40X greater than a renter’s.  And here’s the data to prove it ( see graph below ): The Big Reason Homeowner Net Worth Is So High In the  previous version  of that report, the net worth of the average homeowner was roughly $255,000 and that of the average renter was $6,300. But in  the release  that just came out this year, the gap widened as homeowner net worth climbed dramatically. As the  Survey of Consumer Finances  (SCF) report  says : “. . . the 2019-2022 growth in median net worth wa